It’s no Bull, rookie CBS series a hit
CBS is taking pride in the vast amount of Bull it’s been churning out. So much so that the broadcaster gave the first-year drama an early renewal last week, along with 17 other shows including Kevin Can Wait, Life in Pieces and Madam Secretary.
Bull, starring former NCIS actor Michael Weatherly, has pulled respectable numbers from the get-go. Based on Phil McGraw’s early days as a trial consultant, the series averages 11.8 million U.S. viewers weekly, making it the No. 1 new series of the 2016-17 season and No. 3 scripted series overall in total viewers. In Canada, it regularly places in the Top 10.
A new episode, Name Game, airs tomorrow with Bull (Weatherly) risking his business to help thousands of people file a class-action suit against a corrupt bank.
Before the first season wraps, we’ll meet a new character played by former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Eliza Dushku. She leads a top criminal defence firm in New York; Bull hires her when someone on his team faces prison time. Dushku will appear in three episodes starting May 9 and could become a cast regular.
Behind the scenes, a new showrunner will call the shots in Season 2. Glenn Gordon Caron, whose credits include Moonlighting and Medium, replaces Mark Goffman.
Weatherly played fan-favourite character Anthony DiNozzo on NCIS for more than a decade. He wrapped up his run with DiNozzo discovering he had a daughter and turning in his badge.
“Thirteen years; it really felt like a circle that had gone all the way around and I really felt happy with the resolution of the character and my time on the show,” Weatherly said at a meeting of the Television Critics Association last summer.
“Bull is a big show. It’s a big show with a lot of characters. It’s complex … I solve problems the same way as an actor, but it really requires a lot of different muscles.”
Both Bull and NCIS air on Global and CBS.
DANCE WITH THE DEVIL
Fox’s tongue-in-cheek drama Lucifer is shuffling its episodes around, saving the final four episodes of Season 2 to run along with Season 3. The Season 2 finale will now air May 29.
“(W)e designed this season to be an 18-episode arc because we originally were going to be 18 episodes. But then we got four more! Surprise!” co-showrunner Joe Henderson tweeted last week.
“So we decided to create four episodes that let us play around a bit. Dig deeper into the character stories, play with format a bit, etc. We didn’t know whether they’d air this season or next until now.”
Lucifer returns from its mid-season break May 1 with Episode 14.